90210 Season 1 Episode 3

The Bubble

Recap

We start 90210 with terrible news: the director of West Beverly's performance of Spring Awakening has a family emergency and must leave the show. Who can fill in on such short notice? Tabitha Wilson, of course!

However, the rambling whims of this recovering alcoholic - who we adore - doesn't sit well with Annie and the cast. She convinces her dad to find a replacement and a compromised is reached: Brenda will assist Tabitha with production.

Meanwhile, Naomi still can't get over her dad's affair or her fake family in general. She begs Silver not to blog about it, but Silver can't promise anything. After all, Silver's friendship with Naomi ended in eighth grades when she sold the school about Mr. Silver's straying from his wife. Later on, though, Silver does at least promise to keep quiet.

In other relationship news: Annie makes a date with Ethan for Thursday night. They plan on meeting at The Peach Pit, where Dixon actually just got a job (he took out the side mirror of a parked car and wants to repay the kid in cash so Harry doesn't find out and revoke Dixon's car privlieges).

Ryan and Kelly try to make plans, as well, but she can't find a sitter for Sammy. This leads to uncomfortable questions about the boy's father, which Kelly manages to avoid without mentioning Sammy's dad's name. We doubt that can last long, however. Especially after Ryan later asks Brenda about the mystery man and we can tell Brenda thinks Kelly has to be more open with Mr. Matthews.

Back to Annie: she finds herself stood up at The Peach Pit and afraid she should have chosen Ty over Ethan. We're not so sure: Ty may seem cool now (he gives Dixon a big tip), but Ethan does feel legitimately torn: he ditched the date with Annie because he was helping Naomi deal with her family situation; and he felt obligated to do so because Naomi appears to have a closen connection with Ethan's brother, who is autistic.

That night, Naomi confronts the mistress, Gayle, that her dad has been banging. She appears to be opening a new store in town and kindly informs Naomi that she's moving in to town, but that's not all - she's moving into Naomi's family's beach house. Awkward alert! This news really does shake up Mrs. Clark finally.

Here's how we close this hour:

Dixon comes clean to his dad about the car, and Harry, of course, understands;

Annie feels bad about canceling a date with Ty and kisses him in the hallway;

Naomi and Ethan, having bonded like old times all week, make out in the parking lot;

During an argument with Kelly, Brenda lets it slip that Sammy's dad is... Dylan!

We're trying to get excited over that final point... but it was really the only option, wasn't it?